Monday, March 18, 2013

Vintaj Competition Plum Orchard - finding inspiration

Over the last couple of weeks I have been trying to sketch out a design for a competition piece, for the Vintaj monthly challenge, with the focus inspiration being "Plum Orchard" - Initially, I thought of a variety of plum and purple colors. I considered, "what things or words remind me of plums and orchards" - This one is a tough one for me...... I found a book named "Plum Orchard" - but that is about the south and slavery. I then found a painting by one of my favorite artists - Vincent van Gogh called "Flowering Plum Orchard" It is a painting inspired by Japanese artist Hiroshige. Van Gogh's painting is new for me as I did not know he painted in this style and nothing I have studied about him indicated that he painted in this style. Below is the picture he painted. I decided to use this as inspiration for my design. I love the use of color in this piece and the branch lines that seem to frame the plum flowers, and then the Japanese writing that frames the picture again.